The island nation of Cuba has consistently struggled with one economic barrier above all others: the United States blockade, which has blocked all trade between U.S. companies and Cuba since 1962. This economic strangulation has been exacerbated since the collapse of the Soviet Union — Cuba’s largest trading partner — in 1991. 

The 1992 Torricelli Act, barring ships that dock in Cuba from docking in the U.S., and the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, halting U.S. trade with any country doing business with Cuba, both tightened the blockade. 

Food shortages, rolling blackouts and lack of medical supplies have plagued Cuba as a result of this inhumane U.S. policy.

As the U.S. government continues to escalate its trade wars, countries around the world are increasingly considering alternatives to the U.S.-dominated financial system. States like Cuba, which have for decades suffered under U.S. imperialist hegemony, may now find new opportunities in a changing global economy.

In March, China donated solar panels to Cuba, adding 120 megawatts (MW) to the country’s ailing electrical system. According to Cuba’s official newspaper Granma, the panels were distributed to provinces most affected by regular blackouts: Artemisa, Granma, Guantánamo, Holguín, Las Tunas and Pinar del Río.

The Cuban government plans to transition its energy sector from fossil fuels to renewables, estimating that the country’s solar parks will generate 2,000 MW by 2028. Cuba’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Déborah Rivas Saavedra, called the project “a symbol of the close solidarity between the two nations.” The Chinese ambassador to Cuba, Hua Xin, stated that the new solar parks will reduce fossil fuel consumption and decrease the severity of blackouts.

The reception ceremony for the new panels was held a few kilometers from the port of Mariel, Cuba’s Special Economic Zone (ZEDM). The Mariel zone was constructed in 2013 to encourage foreign investment.

Since the creation of the ZEDM and China’s Belt and Road Initiative, inaugurated the same year, China has become Cuba’s largest trading partner. Mariel has bolstered trade relations between the two countries. The donation ceremony occurring so close to Mariel’s port displays the significance of the growing solidarity between the two socialist states in the wake of a weakening U.S. empire.

Strong relations between Cuba and China should serve as an example to communists around the world who need to take strategic advantage of the declining U.S. empire and build anti-imperialist solidarity between the working classes of all countries.